Rockets fired at Pakistan quake relief helicopter

Pakistani earthquake survivors rest near their collapsed mud houses in the earthquake-devastated district of Awaran on September 25, 2013
(AFP)

Arawan (Pakistan) (AFP) – Militants fired rockets at a helicopter carrying the head of Pakistan's disaster relief agency in the country's quake-hit southwest Thursday, military officials said, but no damage was done.

The helicopter with Major General Muhammad Saeed Aleem, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, on board was flying over Awaran district in Baluchistan province, the area worst hit by Tuesday's 7.7-magnitude quake.

"Two rockets were fired on the helicopter and the target was missed," a military official in the provincial capital Quetta told AFP.

"The area is rife with insurgency and has presence of Baluchistan Liberation Front insurgents."

Another military official confirmed the attack and said everyone in the helicopter was safe.

Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has been struggling with a violent separatist insurgency since 2004.

The 7.7-magnitude quake which hit on Tuesday has killed nearly 350 people and made more than 100,000 homeless